#shushing — Public Fediverse posts

Recently added titles (July 2026)

Yamada checks his phone for messages from Nishi outside the Municipal Center and Library in an episode of the new season of You and I Are Polar Opposites

Building upon the titles listed for July/August, September, October,  November, and December 2021, and January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December of 2022, and January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December of 2023, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September,  October, November, and December of 2024, and January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December of this year, and January, February, March, April, May, and June of this year, this post notes recent titles with libraries or librarians in popular culture which I’ve come across in the past month. Each of these has been watched or read during the past month. No films, animated series, or other entries with libraries (or librarians) to add for this past month, but I did come across some in webcomics and anime. There may be spoilers for these series, so be aware.

Animated series recently added to this page

None for this month.

Anime series recently added to this page

• I Want To Love You Till Your Dying Day, “Friends” (s1 ep 3)
• I Want To Love You Till Your Dying Day, “Accomplices” (s1 ep 4)
• Detective Conan aka Case Closed (s2 ep 22)
• You and I Are Polar Opposites, “Dilemma of a Winter’s Night” (s2 ep 2)
• You and I Are Polar Opposites, “New School Term” (s2 ep 4)

While Ascendance of a Bookworm continues into a second cour (with no more episodes with libraries or the protagonist Myne as a librarian), Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia (set in the 13th century) has the protagonist aiming to get back her book of Eucidlis from an arrogant imperialistic Mongolian princess, and Draw This, Then Die! has the protagonists cleaning the room of a manga book store on the second floor to become their club space, in the second episode of season 2 of You and I Are Polar Opposites, “Dilemma of a Winter’s Night”, Yamada meets Nishi in the middle of winter break as a pretext to see her. While he doesn’t confess his feelings, and nor does she, he wrongly thinks the library doesn’t have a “nice” atmosphere, even though it does. They choose between going to the study room where talking, food, and drink are forbidden, and a free space, with Yamada going with the latter.

Otherwise, in the episode, Nishi admits she comes to the library “quite a bit,” which Yamada finds commendable, and admits he can’t study at all, at home, as it is far too distracting. He admits that inviting her there was just a pretext by accident while she admits that she comes there every day, and has finished all her homework. He is shocked, she admits she wanted a pretext as well, and he stops himself from saying they should date, feeling it isn’t a right place. He ends up being quiet during their date-not-date while studying.

There’s another library scene in the episode “New School Term”. Even the description on Crunchyroll indicates this, saying, “Suzuki takes Yamada to the school library, with an ulterior motive in mind. Nishi is happy that Yamada came, but anxious that others might find out about their relationship.” Shenanigans ensue, while Nishi and Taira work as library for their student library duty. At one point, Taira even wants to process the book returns, while Nishi isn’t sure how to handle Yamada there, and Suzuki offers to help Yamada with reshelving books at another point. She also came to see Yamada. Funny enough, no one else comes into the library except them which seems strange (and they comment on this later, saying few people come there anymore), because this is the school library after all! I also like how Taira helps out Nishi and even gives Yamada a book recommendation, showing he is a true friend. I liked how Yamada and Suzuki enjoy reading books in the library, while showing the library duties, like checking in and out books in a way that seems relaxing, making it seems like something you do every day. There is a cute moment where Yamada and Nishi say each other’s full names.

Then there’s the awful news that Crunchyroll removed Black Lagoon, along with other series like Blood Blockade Battlefront and Grimgar, Ashes and Illusions, as has been reported elsewhere, without any warning. I have an account on that streaming service and the history (which shows what anime series I have watched) doesn’t even mention it at all! I mention this here because that series has a library scene as I noted in my post on here on July 2nd, in the episode “The Succession” (s1 ep 20), first saying that in the episode “Yukio is reading a book by Martin Heidegger as shown in the 20th episode (“Succession”) of the classic crime thriller anime Black Lagoon, which is replete with having girls with guns, particularly hothead Chinese-American Revy.” I went into further detail, saying:

…Yukio is reading a book by Martin Heidegger, as she tells her friend Maki, in the school library, calling the book philosophical and “very powerful.” In contrast, Maki says she likes skincare guides and modern horror books, with Yukio saying she remembered Maki saying she liked Anne Rice. They talk a bit more with Yukio saying she sometimes feels like she is caught inside of book worlds, and viewers see some of the library bookshelves. She says she doesn’t like Stephen King and Maki says she thought Yukio would like Edgar Allan Poe. She says she doesn’t like the ones that imagine the night, and she does not like the world as it makes her scared, that it is not romantic at all.

 

There is a second scene in the episode in the reading room where Yukio is thinking about the gang war between the Russian mafia and Japanese yakuza, and does not listen as much to what Maki tells her and decides to not tell her troubles. The reading room is shown briefly in the next episode, but not enough to mention it here. It is worth noting that Heidegger was directly involved with the Nazis from 1933 to 1945, and even banned from teaching after the war until 1949 (when the ban was lifted). He also never expressed remorse for being involved with the Nazis, which is funny because Hannah Arendt, who became known for her political theory against authoritarianism, including Nazism and fascism. I’m not sure why Heidegger was mentioned (in the manga as well), except to possibly indicate that Yukio was intellectual, nihilistic, and his existential philosophy was appealing. At the same time, I seriously doubt she was a Nazi as there was an earlier plot line in the series where the protagonists stole loot from a submarine filled by wannabe Nazis/neo-Nazis and killed a bunch of them, but rather a bit of a mob boss, if I have to guess. At the same time, during his life, Heidegger had intellectual contact with Japanese scholars like racist Hajime Tanabe (who later regretted defending claimed Japanese state and racial superiority) and pro-militarist Shūzō Kuki over the years, influencing his work, according to Reinhard May.

This all comes when I came across recently this video of an anime fan expressing anger it was removed (along with Crunchyroll locking their anime store behind a paywall effectively), along with this video on the fading, yet important, legacy of the series:

A late entry here is the third episode of I Want To Love You Till Your Dying Day. In that episode, Sheena Totsuki goes to the library of her school-of-sorts/orphanage/training institute, to study. She had wanted to go with Mimi Kagari, but she is unable to so because Mimi left to fight enemies. While there she meets her school friends, Lizzy Seiran and Ali Maud who are a couple themselves, and she reveals what Mimi’s guardian (Fran) told her. Later in the episode, however, Mimi reveals her secret to Sheena, shocking her beyond belief. In the scene itself, you see the wonder of the library which is well-used by students, and seems like a place to relax (and study), with wooden tables, and all the books you’d like to read.

Sheena, and other girls at the school, studying in the school library. Note the ornate tables and books on the bookshelves. Sorry for the blurriness.Sheena’s friends talk to her in the library. Sorry for the blurriness.Sheena shushes her friends because they are in the library, while other patrons look over at her her. Sorry for the blurriness.Sheena is reading a book when someone calls out to her. Sorry for the blurriness.

There was an additional library scene in the fourth episode of that same series, with flashbacks to Sheena thinking of Mimi, and a new scene of Mimi balancing books on her head, while Sheena is learning about resurrection magic, and is surprised by Airi and Seiran. One of my favorite parts (shown below) is when the bell rings and breaks Mimi’s concentration, annoying her, as she almost trying to show off a bit by balancing books on her head.

My favorite part of this episode, because Mimi is really showing off here

Last but least is episode 50 of Detective Conan (also known as Case Closed), “The Library Murder Case” / “The Book Without Pages”.  I have been looking forward to watching this episode for a long time, but I finally got to watch it this month, at long last, an episode which fulfills so many stereotypes when it comes to fictional librarians and libraries. I’ll write a whole post on this, but to give the quick and short version of this, Conan Edogawa, a kid detective (wasn’t always a kid) works with his school friends of sorts to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of a librarian, and soon suspect the library director. They learn that there are fake books in the children’s section where drugs were being stored, and this is why the director murdered that librarian. He even tries to kill all of them too, but they turn all the bookshelves into dominos so they fall on him, allowing the police to come in and arrest him, taking him away, while they find the body (which was on top of an elevator). It’s gory, but also feeds into many stereotypes, which, perhaps, is not at all a surprise for an episode that came out on March 1997. Some even put some parts of the episode as one of the top scariest moments in the series!

Comics recently added to this page

• The Burning Scheme, Issue 4
• Literary Link [issues 1 to 11]
• My Awkward Princess, “|CH 12| Library Hours“
• My Awkward Princess, “|CH 13| Routine“
• My Awkward Princess, “|CH 14| Almost Everyone“
• Pinky Promise, “Episode 15“
• Pinky Promise, “Episode 16“

In the fourth issue of The Burning Scheme, the protagonists, Vera at Sierra Verde Preparatory School, go to the library together, for a group project, with one of them, Calliope, saying the other (Vera) is “pretty.” Vera doesn’t like this closeness and leaves shortly thereafter, to the disappointment of Calliope.

In the episode “CH 12 | Library Hours” of My Awkward Princess, Alice Evelyn and Luna Charlotte do library service together, with Luna annoying Alice, and Luna getting “tamed” by someone else when they give her a lollipop. At one point, Luna catches Alice when she falls, to her annoyance, saying Luna just wanted to touch her, when in reality she just wanted to make sure she wasn’t hurt. And Alice thanks Luna. All this time she is giving instructions to the student vice-president who is relatively incompetent.

Otherwise, in the episode “|CH 13| Routine”, Alice is overworking herself in the library, feeling it will get better the next day and that there cannot be any distractions because the student council depends on her. She feels that she is almost perfect. One day, Luna is with her in the library, believes with Alice believing she should not slow down, and that she has keep working. She pushes it off, despite blood coming out of her nose, saying she isn’t her problem, telling her to stop distracting her, while Luna is deeply worried.

In the episode after this, “|CH 14| Almost Everyone,” Luna goes to the library to read, with Alice asking her why her section of the library isn’t organized yet, and starts bossing her around. Luna finds Alice, who she calls “puppy,” entertaining, and thinks back to when Alice thanked her for catching her, saying that doesn’t happen. Later, in the stairwell, Alice gives her cookies and tells her to show up the next day on time, making Luna blush because Alice gave her sweets (remembering that she likes them), and calls her “dangerous.”

The new version of Literary Link is finally out! That series focuses on libraries at its center, as noted in the series description: “Delinquent Faye Scott just wants to keep her head down and get through her latest sentencing — finish her community service and make it across the graduation stage as unscathed as possible — but her old enemies aren’t letting her go without a fight. However, a certain library volunteer might be the one to show Faye just the kindness she needs to change her life for the better.” I wrote a review about this series a while ago, saying:

Literary Link Review

I was going to add in some issues from Love and be Loved, but I had already added that into a posting I did on recently added titles in April, so I nixed that for this post:

Recently added titles (April 2026)

Lastly, there are two issues of Pinky Promise. In the first of these, the protagonist, Eva, tries to remind the school group to stay on task (picking books for their presentation), as they work together in the school library, and threatens to tell their teacher, Miss Cielo, that they are wasting time. Another classmate tells Hallie that Eva is too serious about school, asking her to convince Eva to not report them. Through it all, Eva is worried about Hallie and the group she is a part of, and when admiring her, she thinks back to a sexy dream she had, leading her to begin blushing. After her fellow classmate believes something may be wrong, Eva denies it, then gets up to find a book. Following this, Hallie gets up to follow Eva.

In the next of those issues, Eva thinks about her reaction and how embarrassing it was, while she starts to look for a book. Hallie comes behind her, startling her, when all she wants is to check in on her. Eva keeps blushing and denying that anything is up, saying she had been different since that morning, after Hallie spent the night at her place. She notices that Eva has been avoiding her, with Eva literally turning her head away, as she stands in front of a library bookshelf. She ends up admitting she can’t look her in the eyes because of a dream she had, where Hallie was touching and kissing her. Even after she says she is embarrassed and shouldn’t have dreamed about it, Hallie teases her about it, saying she is being “naughty,” with Eva saying it is only because she has been teasing her so much lately. Hallie gets close to her and says she is cute every time she teases her, something Eva thinks about later.

Films recently added to this page

None for this month.

Other entries recently added to this page

None for this month. However, there was the recent news that…

• HIDIVE will be streaming The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie on July 14th [English dub]
• The Apothecary Diaries Anime Film’s Trailer Reveals Title, Cast, December 11 Opening

The first of these has libraries as central to the series itself, with library scenes in 16 episodes (“I Was Stolen Away” (s1 ep1), “I Died” (s1 ep 2), “I Want To Hug You” (s1 ep 3), “I Have A Problem” (s1 ep 4), “We Split Up” (s1 ep 5), “I Melted It” (s1 ep 6), “We Swapped Places” (s1 ep 7), “I Had A Dream” (s1 ep 8), “Karta 9: I Hate Yamada” (s1 ep 9), “Bonus Dangers” (s1 OVA), “We’re Searching” (s2 ep 1), “I’m growing up” (s2 ep 2), “Yamada Likes…” (s2 ep 4), “We’re Overflowing” (s2 ep 7), “I Want to Be Closer to Yamada” (s2, ep 10), “I, We, Fell in Love” (s2 ep 13, series finale)), as it is a key meeting place of the male and female protagonists, Kyotaro and Anna Yamada respectfully. As for second series, there’s one library scene I briefly described in a post last year:

In terms of a place of knowledge, consider the 10th episode of the drama/mystery/romance entitled The Apothecary Diaries. In the latter half of the show’s 10th episode, entitled “Honey,” Gaoshun, an assistant of Jinshi, tells Maomao that he will search the court library for information about past events in the rear palace. Later, an assistant behind the information desk helps him. He finds a relevant book and he gives it to Maomao. In it, she learns about events in the past, and that a baby was delivered by Doctor Luomen (her dad!), moving this story in an interesting direction!

© 2024-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

#AscendanceOfABookworm #BlackLagoon #BloodBlockadeBattlefront #books #CaseClosed #DetectiveConan #friendship #girlsLove #GrimgarAshesAndIllusions #IWantToLoveYouTillYourDyingDay #JaadugarAWitchInMongolia #libraryPatrons #lists #LiteraryLink #LoveAndBeLoved #MyAwkwardPrincess #orphans #PinkyPromise #reading #RecentlyAddedTitles #romance #shortBlogs #shushing #students #studying #sweets #TheApothecaryDiaries #TheBurningScheme #TheDangersInMyHeart #TheDangersInMyHeartTheMovie #YouAndIArePolarOpposites #yuri

Lending libraries for Nissa, Nowhere Space, and Kaisa in “Hilda”

Kaisa smirks during a scene in the final season of Hilda

Happy February! In early December 2023, Hilda aired its third, and final, season. It was a fitting end to an animated series which could (and should) have been longer. Unfortunately, Kaisa, the fan-favorite mysterious gothic librarian, got a short shift, as she had in Hilda the Mountain King. Even so, there are many library themes to discuss when it comes to the episode with her most prominent appearance, creation of a lending library by the protagonists, and connections to previous posts about her, Hilda, other series, and library concepts.

In the seventh episode of the final season, entitled “Chapter 7: Strange Frequencies”, Hilda holds the hand of Tonto as they chase a nissa through nowhere space. They jump out of a card catalog, go running through the Trolberg library stacks, and jump inside a copier (also a portal into Nowhere Space) to the bewilderment of Kaisa, at first, before her eyes and body movement give the message that this is something she is used to. Later in that same episode, Hilda sets up a lending library for the nissa, so they can borrow items for a certain period of time, basically functioning like a public library. It seems to work well, from what I can tell.

While it is not directly stated, there is no doubt in my mind that Hilda and her friends learned about this thanks to Kaisa. It would have been better to give Kaisa some speaking lines and have her directly. Perhaps this was originally included, but since the season was only seven episodes, and one special (the movie), it was half of the proceeding seasons, which had twelve episodes each! Such cuts by Netflix were confirmed by show director Andy Coyle.

As I described her back on December 14, 2023, which some fans call “Kaisa Day”, she is a White female librarian (and witch) who is feisty, with unmatched, and extensive, knowledge of cemeteries and mystical items, with 170+ fan fics featuring her, ship her with Johanna (known as Sketchbook), Entrapta in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, or draw parallels between her and Cassandra in Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure. She has strict bosses, is skilled, but bashful,shown to be experiencing burnout and fatigue, even downplaying her personal knowledge at times, and has a unique style which fits with her personality, which can be calm, but also strict or stern. Even so, she clearly has insecurities and can feel like an outcast.

Additionally, she engages in duties which resemble reference librarianship, likely believes that librarians are responsible for patrons’ safety, challenges established systems, and may even be working class, even as she holds herself back in other instances. The library’s classification may resemble those from the human world. She definitely looks content in the series finale when she eats a bag of Jorts given to her by David, and smiles, even after David’s Jorts are taken away, showing the strong friendship between them. Even so, she is possibly queer, as I noted in a blogpost some time ago.

The episodes in Hilda are a night-and-day difference from the stereotypical evil librarian (who is dedicated to shushing her patrons) in Hamster & Gretel, who only serves as a plot device for Gretel to realize her brother is a hero. Funny enough, the librarian is voiced by the talented voice actress, Cree Summer, known for roles like Princess (then Queen) Kidagakash “Kida”  in Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Atlantis: Milo’s Return, Catwoman in DC Super Hero Girls, andPeabo in The Proud Family (and the reboot/revival).

To add more detail to the aforementioned librarian in Hamster & Gretel, a middling all-ages Disney animated series, she is an old White lady wearing glasses dedicated to keeping the library quiet, shushing people when they make too much noise. In the episode, Kevin, and his sister, Gretel, make it to the periodical room where no electronics are allowed. Kevin finds out that the librarian wants to shush everyone in town for being too noisy. His voice is taken away by her Shushinator machine (created by Dr. Doofenschmirtz). She shushes the entire town but is stopped thanks to what Kevin read…in a library book. He is successful, Gretel and her animal companion, Hamster, assist him, and she punches the librarian.

This makes you think. Did the episode writer (Joshua Pruett) or episode director (Erik Kling) have a bad experience in a library? Why would a show like that include such a sexist stereotype? Compared to Hilda, it makes clear which show wants to buck typical depictions and create more holistic characters, and which do not. Pruett is well-known for working on series like Milo Murphy’s Law, Onyx Equinox, and Phineas and Ferb. Erik Kling, another White man, directed episodes of animated series like Madagascar: A Little Wild. You would think that these talented people could avoid such stereotypes.

Hilda surprised to see a running Nissa

What the librarian in Hamster & Gretel did or any of the other atrocious examples of stereotypical librarians, especially those who excessively shush patrons, Kaisa would never do. She wants to uphold rules, but she would never go around and shush people. Instead, she’d be enjoying coffeehouse light jazz, or if in other moods, indie folk (Bon Iver), indie rock (Shoegaze), reggae (Ghost), heavy metal (Slipknot, the HU, Ministry, Bathory), alternative rock (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Siouxsie and the Banshees), gothic rock (Joy Division, Bauhaus), or Steven Universe and Adventure Time soundtracks, as some fans suggested.

All in all, I hope other characters in the future can have such an impact as Kaisa and promote the importance of librarians and libraries while both remain under attack more than ever.

© 2024-2025 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

#burnout #CassandraTangled #CreeSummer #Entrapta #HamsterGretel #Hilda #HildaAndTheMountainKing #Kaisa #LGBTQ #librarianStereotypes #librarianStyle #MiloMurphySLaw #music #PhineasAndFerb #RapunzelSTangledAdventure #SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower #shushing #visualImpairment #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteWomen

The library of the Turtle Princess at the beginning of the Adventure Time episode, “Paper Pete.”

Following in the footsteps of my previous analyses on this blog, I decided to look at a few episodes involving libraries in Adventure Time, an animated fantasy series that ended in September 2018. This is a show that has the library as a recurring location, which is probably why Claire Ruhlin chose it as having one of the 12 best fictional libraries for Paste magazine.

In the episode “The Real You” (S2ep15), Finn and Jake want to impress Princess Bubblegum, and Finn accepts the offer to make a speech at her science event. Jake suggests they go to the place where “knowledge lives”: the library. This library has books almost stacked like bricks in a warehouse. After clearly being bored in the library, Jake suggests they leave, while Finn wants to continue and “cram” the information in a book about pigs. Hilariously, Jake is reading a book about figs. They both start performing a jig and a dance, and the Turtle Princess, who runs the library (and is basically serving as the sole librarian) kicks them out, before which Finn says they were “enthusiastic about learning” which is an utter lie. This whole scene is not even a minute long and we don’t really see much of the library, but it doesn’t look like a grand place like that depicted in various Revolutionary Girl Utena episodes. Even though this show portrays libraries as a boring place you “learn stuff,” there is one similarity: the libraries in both animations are almost deserted.

Some episodes later, in “Paper Pete” (s3ep22) they visit the library once more, with the whole episode focused just on the library. The episode begins with they both carrying a huge book to a table, which is shown at the beginning of this article. The book is a history of rainicorns, with Jake much more into the book and learning about his “heritage,” since his girlfriend is a rainicorn, than Finn. Annoyed with Jake being focused on the books, he begins walking in the stacks, goes through the books by hand, then yells out “Oh no! Damaged books. Who did this?” The Turtle Princess, apparently the only librarian of this library, tells him to “shush,” another librarian stereotype, while other beings, who are patrons, sit at desks behind her. After being shushed once again, he stumbled upon beings known as the “pagelings“:

They end up being the “secret guardians” of the library’s books. When he tries to introduce them to Jake, they hide from everyone, not wanting to reveal themselves. They fight off a bunch of leeches (I think) called “moldos,” obviously connecting to the fact that books can mold, I guess. He eventually throws them on Jake, where they begin eating his fur, but first tries to get them off by hitting them off with a book. He gives up his shirt if they don’t attack the library books, to which the leader of the “moldos,” Mildwin agrees. After leaving the library at the end of the episode, where we see the library looks like, part of which is submerged into the ground, Jake is annoyed by the actions of Finn but admits he wasn’t doing much with the book anyway. He had read the same paragraph over and over for 11 minutes, thinking he should give up in trying to learn rainicorn history, saying he will just fake it going forward. Not sure what lesson we are supposed to take away from this episode, but it’s a fun adventure inside a library.

In later episodes, the library is mentioned, with other characters adding books to it (“Gotcha!”), it is included in a flashback Finn has in the “King Worm” episodes, and the bedroom of the Turtle Princess at the top of the library is shown in “Princess Monster Wife”. All in all, this is ultimately a very positive view of a library, although it competes with the public library in Steven Universe and the family library in She-Ra in the Princess of Power at minimum. Oh, and, after watching some episodes, I came across another library, in the episode “Betty” (s5ep48), where the Ice King becomes human again, looking in his books to figure out who he is, what he needs to do.

That’s all for this post!

© 2020 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Editor note: This post was originally published on my History Hermann blog but has been re-edited and fixed before being posted on this blog. Enjoy!

https://popculturelibraries.wordpress.com/2020/08/04/what-time-is-it-library-time/

#AdventureTime #books #eating #femaleLibrarians #librarianStereotypes #libraryPatrons #NonHumanLibrarians #reading #research #reviews #shushing #WhitePatrons